7 Mistakes To Avoid Making If You Are A First-Time Visitor On Philippines

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Philippines is a relatively easy destination to visit and enjoy, even by South East Asian Standards. Most of the people there speak English and it is a beautiful country full of happy people with a relaxing vibe.
However, there are some mistakes that are easy to make, especially for someone who has never visited Philippines before. Fickle weather and a large number of islands can mess up any plans in a second. This is why more than knowing what to do, it's also good to know what not to do if you are first time visitor on Philippines.

1. Planning too much
This can apply to any destination but Philippines especially. As stated already, the weather is fickle and you can't really know for sure at what time you'll be able to see what. Vesta Trantham, a Travel Blogger at UK Writings explains: “Boats and busses don't have a steady schedule that you are used to, and they can change their direction pretty quickly. Maybe the hotel will not be to your taste or the beach will not suit you – the point is, don't make stead-fast plans. Leave plenty of room to go somewhere else if your arrangements fail”.

2. Not bringing any cash
Philippines may be one of the most popular tourist location, but it certainly doesn't accommodate to all of their needs. Payment options being one of those needs. You'll likely be unable to find a working ATM even on some of the most popular islands and cities. That's why you need to come prepared and bring enough money in cash to last you until you are sure that what you see is a fully functioning ATM.

3. Not studying the weather
Before deciding to go on this trip, take a good look at what the weather might be like in that particular month and what some predictions are. “Otherwise you'll just end up disappointed that it's always raining and you haven't seen any of the beautiful beaches that you've dreamed of. Some parts of the country are dry while it's raining in Manila so, chose your destinations accordingly. Typhoons are not so easy to deal with, but keep checking on relevant websites”, - comments Alexandra Phaneuf, a Travel advisor at Essay Roo.

4. Not acting like a local
The best way to see this wonderful location is by becoming one of the locals. Eat the food that they eat and do the things they do. Ride on their busses and boats, walk on the same streets and immerse yourself in their culture.

5. Not going to a hotel because you think private accommodation is cheaper
Getting a AirBnB apartment may seem like a good idea but you'll just spend more money than you need to. That apartment is probably more expensive than any decent, mid-range hotel in Manila or Cebu. For a lot less money, you can get a good service, a concierge and a quality accommodation while at AirBnB you would spend a lot of money and end up with no guidance or help which is a bad way to start your trip  in a big city like Manila.

6. Getting annoyed just because you spent some extra money
Philippines is probably a lot less expensive than most of European and American destinations. So, when it happens that you have to pay a few extra pesos for something, it's not a good idea to make a big fuss out of it. “You probably spend a lot more where you live and you don't pay much attention to it. This can only run your vacation and confuse the locals It's common knowledge that people in Asia don't like to raise their voice or being yelled at”, - says Martin Davis, a Travel writer at Boom Essays and Stateofwriting

7. Not joining tours
With so many beautiful places to visit and all the islands that you can see, it could be a terrible mistake not to take tours. Those guides can take you to some of the most amazing places on earth and you wouldn't be able to find them on your own.

Takeaway
There are many mistakes that a first-time visitor in Philippines can make. Most of them are easy to fix but the biggest one would be not enjoying your time there. Have fun and embrace the peaceful vibes of these wonderful islands.



Written by:

Freddie Tubbs is a travel writer and editor at Paper Fellows. He also works as a blog content writer at Academized and contributes expert posts to Australian help blogs.

Bell Films Launches Big Comeback Movie Kontradiksyon

Wazzup Pilipinas!

BELL FILMS, the film production arm of Universal Records Philippines, has relaunched its operations, featuring their big comeback film “KONTRADIKSYON,” during THE NEXT ATTRACTION concert held on June 30, 2018 (Saturday) at the Samsung Hall, SM Aura Premier, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

After over 23 years, Bell Films is proud to make its comeback into the realm of film production as it strives to enter the digital age of quality and relevant Filipino films. Bell Films was one of the early independent film production outfits that brought international quality films to the Filipino audience way back in the 1960s. The company has also produced films such as Twin Fists for Justice (1974) starring Ms. Vilma Santos and Hong Kong Martial Arts Superstar/Actor Meng Fei, and two movies featuring the Universal Motion Dancers: Sige… Ihataw Mo! (1994) with Claudine Barretto and Wowie De Guzman, and its sequel Ibigay Mo Ng Todong-todo (1995).

The Next Attraction concert aimed to showcase world-class Filipino musical talent, while exploring the different worlds and genres that can be featured on film. Big name OPM Icons and artists such as Freddie Aguilar, Vina Morales, Christian Bautista, Gloc-9, Julie Anne San Jose, and Shanti Dope performed at the event.

The event also served as the media presentation for Bell Films’ 2018 debut production, Kontradiksyon starring Jake Cuenca, Kris Bernal, John Estrada, Paolo Paraiso, and Elizabeth Oropesa, among many other stars featured on the film. The action film, which is directed by multi-Palanca award-winning Writer Njel De Mesa, is set to be an intense ground-breaking, in-depth, critical, and edge-of-your-seat look on the Philippines' current drug war. which will have the audiences see the various aspects and opposing views of the big issues in the country. The film is expected to premiere later this year.

Follow Bell Films on social media: Bell Films (facebook.com/bellfilmsph) on Facebook, YouTube, and @bellfilmsph on Twitter and Instagram.

TraXion To Bring Financial Inclusion to 89 Million Unbanked Filipinos

Wazzup Pilipinas!

TraXion, a fully-featured financial services platform for the unbanked and underbanked, is enabling full financial inclusion for everybody in the Philippines. To create a ready-to-go solution, it blends a very new technology—blockchain—with decades-old technologies like text messages and leverages a broad network of existing brick-and-mortar shops.

Eight out of 10 families in the Philippines are unbanked or underbanked. This means they have never had access to financial services that the middle class takes for granted. Being stuck in a cash-only economy limits people's financial options, putting their financial security at risk, and stifling their economic potential.

TraXion is offering full-featured savings accounts that enable payments, low-cost remittances, peer-to-peer loans, savings accounts, a full range of insurance options, investment consultancy and a philanthropic crowdsourcing platform.

A Pragmatic Approach

To accomplish this feat, TraXion is using existing infrastructure: mobile phones and convenience stores. TraXion has developed a mobile e-wallet that works on even the most affordable feature phone through the proven power of SMS. They're also rolling out e-wallets to the estimated 600,000 merchants operating ubiquitous privately-owned "sari-sari" convenience stores all across the Philippines.

The whole system is powered by blockchain technology and automated by smart contracts. Blockchain tech keeps funds safe and secure, while TraXion's TXN token helps to ensure speedy, low-cost remittances, taking mere seconds for an international money transfer instead of the average processing time of one-to-five business days. A much larger-than-average percentage of the Philippine population works abroad, remitting money back home every month to support their families—who often withdraw this money in one envelope of cash. This represents an extended market base that TraXion is eager to reach.

"After establishing our customer base in the Philippines, we will expand first to Indonesia and other countries where there are a lot of overseas migrant workers to better facilitate their remittances. Our first client contract with a seafarer's cooperative is a move in that direction, onboarding up to 1 million maritime entrepreneurs," said TraXion Founder and CEO Ann Cuisia.

Being on blockchain means TraXion is platform agnostic, allowing it to be easily adapted for different technologies and approaches in different countries. While they are focusing on sari-sari store integration in the Philippines, for example, the higher smartphone penetration in Indonesia will make it easier for TraXion to access the market directly.

Cuisia is also the Founder of GavaGives, the most popular online charity crowdsourcing platform in the Philippines, which will be connected to the overall TraXion platform. The TraXion team is dedicated to combating poverty, having promised to allocate 2% of their tokens as rewards for top philanthropists on GavaGives. The charity platform was a testing ground for TraXion's e-wallet and the underlying blockchain technology. GavaGives uses Hyperledger Fabric to track contributions through the value chain, greatly increasing accountability.

GavaGives has recently partnered with Coins.ph, Southeast Asia's leading e-wallet. The partnership will draw more attention to TraXion's blockchain method of verifying trustworthy NGOs, by bringing up a list of top-performing philanthropy organizations operating on the GavaGives site whenever someone uses Coins.ph to make a donation. This will greatly reduce charity fraud across the region.

There are a number of other companies also currently working on financial inclusion solutions. Among them, She Counts is giving unbanked women in Tanzania and Indonesia access to mobile banking services, Paysafe enables cash payments online in many countries around the world, and IDBox combines a solar-powered Raspberry Pi with a fingerprint scanner to offer power–main free access to financial services in Papua New Guinea. While none of these companies offer the full scale of services that TraXion is ready to launch, Cuisia-Lindayag remains hopeful for their success.

"We aim to work together with other companies that make e-wallets, not compete with them," said Cuisia. "At the end of the day, we're all working together for the common good. We must not lose sight of this."

TraXion's TXN token pre-sale has already begun, and their crowd sale begins on August 1st. More than $4 million has already been raised in their private sale. For more information and to learn more about the KYC process, visit https://www.traxion.tech.

Additional Facts and Figures:

According to the World Bank's most recent Global Findex, 22% of all humans on Earth remain unbanked.

In the Philippines, 89 million people are unbanked or underbanked, and credit card penetration is only 3%.

2.2 million migrant Filipinos work overseas at any time, making the Philippines the third-largest remittance-receiving nation in the world, according to a recent World Bank report.

The Philippines has a very high rate of mobile phone penetration, at 75% according to a 2017 joint report by We Are Social and Hootsuite.

"Sari-sari" convenience stores account for 40-45% of company sales in the country according to a recent estimate by Procter & Gamble Philippines.